Cafe NoNo is an anthology I originally committed to tape and gave to
Jenn sometime in July of 1997 (just after we first started dating).
Bold. It has pieces from 1986 to 1996 and spans a wide range of
styles and eras. This is by no means a set of complete works from
that decade. Pre-1988 work is mostly Osiris stuff and a few
Gutierrez/Lesinski collaborations which include classics like
Our Awesome Earth, Dora Kent's Head, and Bob's
Song. Other work
between 1987 and 1996 included the grungy hard rock band Fred/Nimoy/Ardvk
(a series of bands with the same basic lineup of Paul Lesinski,
Bill Moyer, Greg Bradbury, et al. but with a few personnel changes),
Golden Dawn (representing various collaborations with Paul Smith),
Dark's Ensemble (Paul Leskinski, Kevin Brown, and I), some Strangers stuff
(I had a brief tenure with them in 1990), and of course, The Weasles.
There is also a huge volume of work which was done impromptu with
various friends over the years like Mephistopheles Ate My Lunch (with
Shannon Gomes and Paul Smith), People That Wear Coats (with Rob
Perrier, Keith VanDierendonck, and Andy Coulter), and a host of
unreleased solo personal recordings like the Irod Project etc. (including
Freedom is Ringing in My Ears).
The first nine tracks on Disc 1 are the 1991 compilation
Pro Aris Et Focis (From the Altar and the Fireside). Pro Aris
represents a snapshot of works going back to 1987
(just after high school) and until 1991 (just after undergraduate school).
The Cafe NoNo anthology is dominated by selections from an ongoing
project (started in high school) called Smaggiontopue (pronounced
smag-aeon-toe-pooie) based on the so-called
"Scuma Mythos" (if you can
believe that). Those pieces are represented on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7,
and 8 on Disc 1 and track 9 on Disc 2.
There are also a number of selections from The Weasles, a "band" which did some great improv work in the studio. There has only been one live public performance to my knowledge. It was during an SJSU Physics Department Banquet at a little English pub on North First Street. Let us just be glad no one was recording! Included in the Weasles category is an interested couple of Mauda/Gutierrez collaborations which have a edgy creative tension to them.
2. Leviathan the Fish (1987)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez, F. Goris
Lyrics: F. Goris, T.D. Gutierrez
This piece was performed impromptu based on a tune I had been working
on for Smaggiontopue with Fred Goris on organ, Dan Quinn on guitar,
Ann Dryden on percussion, and myself on bass.
That's Fred and me singing (one of us in each speaker).
Lyrics:
You are stirring a cup of ice
Which has long ago evaporated
Eat not with thy hand nor foot
You being of conspiratorial slogan
Jude the Obscure was a very happy fellow
Is this Relevant?
Is anything really Relevant?
Pagans shall eat of the fruit
Which has no name
Sing with the fish
Which is known as Leviathan
Sing with the fish
Which is known as Leviathan
3. Valley of the Topuen (1987)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
This "Floydian" piece for
Smaggiontopue is performed by Paul Lesinsk
doing some seriously expressive guitar. That's me on bass and organ
(and a cardboard box for percussion). The middle blurb is
backwards -- I'll let you decode it yourself.
4. Pipe Dream (1991)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
The music for was originally written for a piece called The Papal Ballad,
a satirical snap at religion and superstition. Maureen Kelly,
my housemate at the time from Benton street, was going to write the lyrics.
However, there was a falling out and nothing ever came of it.
I wrote these lyrics on Easter morning 1991 (the first verse is
actually about the falling out). Mike Masuda and I recorded
it with him on bass and drums and me on guitar. We did it on Mike's
equipment and he did a pretty good job of engineering it.
Lyrics:
I remember seeing the fragments
From within our pipe dream
Fallen so sharp and with a petty nonchalance
I hear her laughing
My eyes they wept so deeply
That the tears they never had to fall
From your overt lack of tolerance
To your lacerated silence
To your imagined sense of intelligence
I wish to you not a bitter end
I see the lovers lying in the park
They are not alone
One remembers that he cannot love again
He's to afraid
But he wants to have her anytime that
Selfish lust requires his heart
When will he ever learn
Of a higher place we all can see?
To rise above the pettiness
To nurture her kind faithfully
A noble prince he finds himself
In the fancy of courtly ladies
Three in all, like seasons they differ
Yet meshing in ever so subtle ways
He wants them all yet he fears them all
And he cries about them every night
When does a boy become a man?
Is it finally when he learns to fly?
As his seasons pass and he from prince to king
Silence will remind him of learning to crawl
5. Festival of Canonical Nocturnes (1990)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
This piece is performed on a bass and then doubled in speed,
giving it a kind of what-the-hell-instrument-is-that feel.
A little Bach is thrown in at the end for fun. This is an
interlude during Smaggiontopue.
6. Before the Deed Was Done (Willow) (1989)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
Lyrics: William Shakespeare (Othello: The Moor of Venice)
This was written for an English literature class as extra credit.
We read Othello and there is a sad little song buried deep in
the play sung by Othello's
wife Desdemona. She sings it as she
senses some serious weirdness between her and Othello (no
thanks to that villian's
villain Iago). The tune is her Swan Song
and, as can be expected, she dies a painful and violent death
not long after finishing it. My friend Julie Perrier (formerly Fullerton)
is singing
and the rest is me on a Korg M1 keyboard.
Nice "official"
music already exists for the piece -- but I didn't discover this until
years later.
Lyrics:
The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore tree
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow.
The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her moans;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her and soft'ned
the stones –
Sing willow, willow, willow
Willow, willow willow
Sing all a green willow must be my garland
Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve –
I called my love false love; but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow:
If I court more women, you'll couch with more men.
7. Sire of the Topuen (1990)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
Basically the same music (with different interludes) as
Sire of the Smaggi (track 1) but played on guitar.
It is the theme and style of the Topuen and their leader,
The Sire. One of the main themes of Smaggiontopue is the
whole "two aspects of the same thing" thing.
8. I'll Take My Toasty Frost (1990)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
A solo bass piece with Kevin Brown on bongos. There is a
catchy 5/4 section which I must be careful about hearing
or it gets stuck in my head. This is another interlude in
Smaggiontopue.
9. A Christmas Gift (1988)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
Written for a friend of mine from the St. William's
Youth Group (the youth group that regularly met
at the "haunted gym").
10. Granite Gray (1996)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
This is the most recent piece on Cafe NoNo. Recorded in Davis,
I had just bought a drum machine, a digital effects rack,
a neat distortion box, and a new guitar.
11. The Measurement of Pressure (1992)**
Music: T.D. Gutierrez and M.M. Masuda
Lyrics: Halliday and Resnick
Masuda and I cranked this out (from idea to finished product)
in about the amount of time it takes to listen to the song on
the CD. The guitar amp was in another room with a lone mic
sitting in front of it. I was two closed doors away (it was LOUD)
listening to Mike's "singing"
(through a distortion box intended for
guitars) and the drum machine. The lyrics are from the classic
physics textbook Fundamentals of Physics Second Edition by good
ol' Halliday and Resnick (see section 16-5 p. 301-302 or look up
"pressure,measuring" in the index). The song, although technically
a parody of "industrial music" was actually played (albeit at about
3am) on KFJC, Foothill Junior College's alternative radio statio
(thanks to Keith Kasunik). This piece also appears on the
Weasles compilation CD.
12. All the Things That Diamonds Know (1992)**
Music: T.D. Gutierrez and M.M. Masuda
Lyrics: M.M. Masuda and T.D. Gutierrez
This is another Masuda/Gutierrez collaboration. We wrote this
one for our friend Eun Joo on her birthday. Mike did a nice
job engineering the piece with lots of goofy sounds etc. He's
on bass, I'm on guitar and we tradeoff on the singing.
We each wrote about half the music: he did the chorus and I
did the verses and the breaks. He wrote the first half of the
lyrics (including the chorus) and I wrote the second half (we sang our own lyrics).
Lyrics:
Eun Joo the lab revolves around you
Stay awake, it's lunch time soon
Keep the sample on the scale
If you don't, the run will fail
Sanidine, Olivine, MgO
And all the things that diamonds know
So if you want to leave today
Be sure and check your CDA
Paddling down the windswept shore
To chase your dreams forever more
Eun Joo the lab revolves around you
Stay awake, it's lunch time soon
Tell me of the dreams you had last night
It's 4AM and all your world is fright
If you need to rest your mind
Rest assured your dreams are worse than mine!
With some coffee at your lips
And some bread, perhaps some chips
Cheetos I'm sure would be your choice
Knowing your tummy's inner voice
Paddling down the windswept shore
To chase your dreams forever more
Eun Joo the lab revolves around you
Stay awake, it's lunch time soon
13. Jocular Evil (1992)**
Music: The Weasles
This is one of my very favorite Weasles pieces. We are
improvising here on the theme "scary" but with jolly overtones --
whatever that means. That's Mike Masuda on drums, Wayne Dawson
on keys, Mark Fallis on guitar, and me on bass.
14. Montage (Part 1) (1992)**
Music: The Weasles
Another crazy Weasle improv piece. Masuda did a funny cut
and paste of several separate jams and managed to make it
sound like a single piece. The second half comes on Disc 2.
4. Small Furry Creatures: Alice’s Torsionl
Waves (1986)
Music: P.Lesinski and T.D. Gutierrez
Lyrics: T.D Gutierrez
This is another Gutierrez/Lesinski collaboration based on an
organized improvisation on three themes. The middle theme has
my crazy lyrics -- bits of the melody are based the Locrian
mode (B to B in the key of C), which is downright impossible to sing.
Lyrics:
I see the mighty army march past my porch
We see them turn around and march right in
My mom tells me to kill them with my foot
I shout "no" and that is all
The aunts the aunts helping with the dishes
Cleaning up my house
My parents' siblings bringing-up my cousins with joy
The ants the ants helping with the dishes
Cleaning up my house
My insect friends creeping like bugs because they
are
He calls my name like a dreadful disease
I take my seat in his laboratory
He begins to scrape the remains from my brain
The process is very complicated I wish it was over
Calculus calculus scrape it from my teeth
Make my gums bleed
It is basically old food just stuck there
Calculus calculus scrape it from my teeth
Make my gums bleed
An interesting method of mathematics dealing with rates of change
Toting that wheelbarrow like a sack of bricks
Bringing them to my home in the Spring
Loss for words prevents him from speaking
He is quite huge with large ears and a basket of eggs
Easter Bunny Easter Bunny bringing his eggs with him to church
Leaving his footprints in the dirt
Easter Bunny Easter Bunny bringing his eggs with him to church
Hiding eggs from little children how mean.
Yes.
5. Dream of Kings (Excerpt 1) (1990)***
6. Dream of Kings (Excerpt 2) ***
Music/Lyrics: Dark's Ensemble
This represents selections from the grand opus of the
prolific power trio
Dark's Ensemble. Paul Lesinskiis on guitar,
Kevin Brown on drums, and myself on bass and keyboards. Paul
did most of the singing. This is the core of the band Osiris
which disbanded right after high school in 1986. Originally,
Dream of Kings was written, arranged, and recorded in one day
(although we did bring in ideas we had been stewing on for a
while). This particular recording was made at SJSU (not the
original recording) on a 32-track system by a music engineering
student who needed a final project. The song in its entirety
is a about 25min long. The basic idea is that the leaders
of the world all have the same disturbing dreams which inspire
them to change their disarmament policies. The many sub-songs
of the piece represent various dreams that the leaders have.
7. Humming My Song (1989)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
Lyrics: F. Goris
This piece, recorded in Fred's livingroom, was designed as
Paul McCartnyesque bubble gum pop piece however, it turned
out more like an early Pink Floyd Syd Barret tune. Oh well.
Fred is singing and wrote the words while Paul Smith makes
a cameo on guitar at the end. I'm on piano, bass, and drums (real
drums). At least I managed to sound a bit like Ringo.
8. Owner of a Lonely Heart (1991)****
Music: Yes
Performed by: T.D. Gutierrez
Garth Brooks would be "proud" of this crooning version of this
classic rockin' Yes hit.
9. Brother Daniel’s Theme (1986)
Music: T.D. Gutierrez
Another in the Smaggiontopue series, it was written as the
theme and style of Brother Daniel, Unholy Priest of Gomtart.
This piece describes the moment when Brother Daniel confronts
Drike the Meager, plunges a knife into a table, sneezes,
then leaps out of the tower "much to his dismay".
10. Montage (Part 2) (1992)**
Music: The Weasles
The second half of the spliced improvisation started on Disc 1.